


you just fall away

by ohallows



Category: Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)
Genre: 5+1 Fic, Ambiguous Relationships, Angst, Azu and Grizzop are slightly in it but don’t really speak, Canon Compliant, M/M, Rings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:47:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22049608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohallows/pseuds/ohallows
Summary: Four times Zolf gave Hamid a ring, and one time Hamid gave one back.
Relationships: Hamid Saleh Haroun al-Tahan/Zolf Smith
Comments: 13
Kudos: 81





	you just fall away

**Author's Note:**

> informally dedicated to ellie and isabelle for listening to me ramble abt this and for brainstorming w me !! love u fools

Everything down here smells like the worst form of decay, and it’s all Hamid can do to refrain from pinching his nose and breathing exclusively through his mouth. Bertie has no such compunctions, visor pulled down as he loudly complains about how he is the highest of knights and shouldn’t be expected to trot around down here like the lower classes - the same rot he spouted at university and which Hamid quickly learned to tune out. It’s easy enough to fall back into old habits and do the same now. Zolf and Sasha, on the other hand, look a step away from either killing Bertie or kicking him into the sewer water, and while Hamid fundamentally disagrees with them both, he thinks Bertie’s ego could probably do with a bit of checking right about now. 

“Oi, boss,” Sasha says out of nowhere, pointing out a piece of metal and golden tendons sticking up out of the water. “Think that’s part of it.”

Hamid peers a bit closer - it’s dark and damp in the sewers, but there’s a dim electric light hanging above them that shines over the water, glinting off of the arm. It does look like the thing Edison had displayed at the party, and if Hamid has to guess, he thinks it must be an arm or a leg - it’s too thin to be anything else. 

“Good spot, Sasha,” Zolf compliments, and Sasha hides a small smile. He looks out over the water, glancing at the trident at his side with a considering look as he hums quietly. The trident lashes out as Zolf thrusts it forward, but it falls just short of the arm as Zolf quietly swears under his breath. 

“Damn,” he says, pulling it back. “Thought that’d work.”

“It was a good idea,” Hamid reassures. There must be some way they can retrieve the arm - Sergeant Haringay had explicitly ordered them to recover all evidence of the simulacrum and anything else they can find. Leaving this behind in the water isn’t an option. 

Zolf’s trident didn’t reach, but maybe there’s a spell Hamid can use… he hasn’t prepared anything useful for the day, really, which is a shame, and he doesn’t think prestidigitation will be able to create a lasso or anything helpful. It’s a bit of a stumper, this… Hamid stares at the arm, squinting, trying to think up anything they can do.

“Can you hold this?” Zolf interrupts his thinking, gruff as ever, and wriggles a band off of his finger, holding it out to Hamid. 

“Oh! Of course!” Hamid says, and holds his hand out as Zolf drops the ring into it. “Er - why?” 

Zolf points over his shoulder at the sewer they’re stood in front of, where they can just see a piece of the simulacrum sticking up from its murky waters. “Someone’s gotta get in and get it. You and Golden Boy over here are a bit too posh to consider stomping around in sewer water - no offense, Hamid -“

“None taken,” Hamid says absently, although Bertie blusters on for a while as Zolf rolls his eyes. 

“Anyway, you two won’t, and I’m not gonna make Sasha do it, because she doesn’t deserve to wade through a bunch of shite,” he finishes. Sasha nods when Hamid looks at her, looking as pleased as he’s ever seen her - which, considering they all basically met  _ yesterday  _ isn't saying much. “So, I don’t want the ring falling off and getting lost. S’not a magic ring, doesn’t automatically stay on. Keep it safe for me, yeah?” Zolf asks, and Hamid nods. It’s not going to be that hard of a challenge - the water level isn’t that high, so Zolf won’t need to spend a lot of time down there to grab it, and they aren’t going to be  _ going _ anywhere, so… All he has to do is stand here and not let it slip out of his hands. 

Zolf trudges away, and Hamid glances down at the ring. It’s a simple, silver piece; it looks like a family crest ring, although it’s not a crest Hamid’s ever seen before. The coat of arms - if that’s truly what it is - is nothing more than the suits on a card. All of the suits are black gems, intricately cut to resemble their shape, apart from the bright red ruby of the spade. It’s a peculiar ring, no doubt, but Hamid’s only met Zolf a day ago - for all he knows, it’s part of his village’s custom, or a Dwarvish thing, and he isn’t uncouth enough to actually  _ ask.  _ He tucks the ring onto his thumb - the only finger it will fit, and waits patiently as Zolf sloshes through the water and pulls out the simulacrum bit with a grunt, tossing it up on the raised platform they’re on before climbing out himself. 

Hamid delicately waves a handkerchief at him and casts prestidigitation; in the space between a blink, Zolf looks good as new. One would never guess he’d just stomped around in a sewer. 

“Cheers,” he says, giving the sewer a disgusted and dark glare over his shoulder. “Handy, that.”

“It’s no problem at all,” Hamid says, shooting him an easy smile that Zolf returns faintly. Zolf holds a hand out and Hamid stares at it for half a second, confused, until he jumps slightly with a quiet “Oh!” He pulls the ring off of his thumb and hands it carefully back to Zolf, who twists it onto his ring finger and claps him on the shoulder. 

“Thanks, Hamid,” he says, genuine, and Hamid smiles up at him. 

“Anytime,” he responds, feeling the warmth of Zolf’s hand even through his suit and cloak. Zolf grabs their arm up and hands it off to Bertie.

“Mind carrying it back to Haringay?” he asks, and Bertie puffs his chest up as he takes the arm. 

“But of  _ course _ , Mr. Smith, as the strongest and most integral member of this party, I am the best choice to transport this precious cargo, hmm? Why, I believe -“ he continues speaking as he leads the party out of the tunnel, and Hamid can’t hide a slightly fond smile even as he hears Sasha stifle a bit of a laugh from behind him while Zolf rolls his eyes exaggeratedly.

Bertie never changes, after all. 

—

Kew Gardens has been more of a hassle than Hamid had been expecting, and he’s not best pleased when they all realize that, on the heels of being followed in the dark by some mysterious fungal beast, their only way out is blocked by a thick steel door with a keypad blinking red at its side. 

“We need an access card to get in,” Sasha says, looking at the door. “I could probably break the lock, but this system looks like it’s designed to shut down if they break. We’d be trapped inside anyway.”

“Could kick the door down?” Zolf suggests, gesturing at Bertie, who turns away from scratching at Brutor’s face and making kissy noises at him to give them a confused look.

Sasha shakes her head, and Bertie’s face falls. “They’re heavy duty. Would probably just damage him.”

Zolf doesn’t seem to think this is the  _ worst  _ idea possible, so Hamid steps in quickly. “Maybe we could contact Colgate somehow? Get the access key from him?” he suggests, but both Zolf and Sasha shake their heads. 

“Don’t think we’ll have time to make it back up and down. Plus, who knows if Colgate even stuck around. Could have gotten annoyed waiting for Mendeleev to show up,” Sasha says, poking again at the access panel as it blinks white for a moment. “The key should be around here somewhere, we found a discarded lab coat, so it should be around.” She doesn’t sound completely convinced, but it’s really the best plan they have - and, honestly, contrasted with ‘being eaten by a giant monster’, it sounds wonderful. 

“So, we’re looking around, then, are we?” Bertie says, squinting as his eyes roam around the room. “Interesting.”

“Er, Bertie,” Hamid says, sidling up to him and shooting Zolf a reassuring glance. “How about you stay here and keep watch? You know, with that thing slithering around in the dark, we really need someone to keep an eye out.”

Bertie immediately nods, giving Hamid a blinding smile as he claps him too roughly on the shoulder. “A fantastic idea, Hamid, exactly what our little team needs! A lookout, an eagle eye, to spot the monster in the darkness, hmm? I will gladly volunteer,  _ gladly _ , for who else could keep us safe? No, it is I, Sir Bertrand McGuffingham, who will scour the monster lurking out there, I, who will -“ 

Hamid leaves him to his ramblings, and honestly, Bertie doesn’t even seem to realize he’s gone as he continues speaking loudly. 

“He’s distracted, we can look around ourselves,” Hamid says, and Zolf and Sasha nod. 

“How’d you get Bertie-wrangling down to a perfect point like that, mate?” Sasha asks, and Hamid shrugs.

“We went to university together. I had to learn quickly.” 

“Well, it worked,” she says, almost sounding impressed, and then turns to survey the room. “Right. Should spread out, cover more ground. If it scattered from the lab coat that fell, it shouldn’t be too far off. Zolf?” she asks, and Zolf nods, snapping his fingers. Both torches in her hand light, and she hands one to Hamid. They break off from each other at the same time, torch lights shining around the room as they search for where the access card could have gone. Hamid still thinks that looking for Colgate would be the best option - they don’t even know if the lab coat had had an access card, or if the person who left it behind hadn’t taken it with them. Or - more worryingly - how long they have before whatever fungus that’s been crawling after them catches up with them. 

“Eugh,” Hamid says, poking at a fungus with a broken-off branch he finds on the ground to see if the access card has somehow ended up in there. It doesn’t react beyond poofing up with some spores that he quickly leans away from. Thankfully, he doesn’t inhale any of them, but he resolves to be a bit more careful in the future.

“Find anything?” Sasha calls from across the room, and Hamid shakes his head. 

“Hamid says no,” Zolf calls back - and, oh right, dark room, dark vision, Sasha definitely couldn't see him shake his head but Zolf could - and Hamid yells over a confirmation.

“Just a few weird funguses laying about, nothing helpful!” he says. They look for a few more moments, and as nothing comes up, Hamid’s starting to feel a bit despondent. Over in the corner, Bertie is still watching the shadows for any hint of the monster stalking them, and Hamid just hopes that Bertie is actually paying attention to things instead of getting lost inside his own head. 

He sighs, a bit; this isn’t really what he’d envisioned being part of a mercenary company would entail, locked down here in the darkness. 

“Hey, Hamid,” Zolf calls, and Hamid swings the torch around in his direction. “C’mere a moment.” Hamid walks over and Zolf beckons for the torch. “Give me the light for a minute,” he asks, and Hamid obliges. 

“I thought you had dark vision?” he says, and Zolf nods.

“Easier to make out in the light, though, and I -“ Zolf peers a bit closer into the fungus he’s stood in front of, and then nods decisively as he hands the torch back to Hamid. “I see a corner of it - Hamid, do me a favor, this fungus ain’t gonna eat my hand or anything, yeah?”

Hamid looks at it - it looks normal, slightly green and mossy, but - “Zolf, I - I think it’s safe? It should be? It looks familiar enough, but, well, I didn’t exactly finish my lesson on fungal varieties in college, it could still be dangerous?” he finishes, and Zolf shrugs. 

“Well, we need to get it somehow,” he says, and pulls the ring off of his hand, handing it to Hamid. “Here, hold this.”

“Zolf, I  _ really don’t think this is a good idea _ ,” Hamid emphasizes, but he takes the ring anyway as Zolf waves him off and pulls up his sleeves. 

“Look on the bright side, Hamid,” he says. “Either this kills me, or whatever’s been chasing us does. Yeah?” 

“I don’t think that’s a bright side!” Hamid exclaims, but it’s too late. Zolf’s holding the fungus apart with one hand and digging around with the other, frown on his face. Hamid nearly covers his eyes, waiting for Zolf to shout in pain or collapse or choke or - or - or  _ something _ , but all that happens is Zolf’s hand pulling out of the fungus with a disgusting noise - and he’s holding the access card. 

“Oh, thank the  _ gods,”  _ Hamid sighs. Finally, they can get out of this hellish room. 

“Hamid, do you mind, er -“ Zolf makes a strange waving motion with his hands, and Hamid cocks his head, a bit confused, until it registers. 

“Oh! Of course,” he says, pulling out the handkerchief and waving it in Zolf’s direction. Just like that, the fungus is gone, schlorping onto the floor, and Zolf pulls his sleeves back down.

“Cheers,” he says, and holds out a hand. Hamid lays the ring on his palm, and Zolf fiddles with it for a moment before slipping it back on his hand. “Oi! Sasha!” he calls, holding up the access card with a grin on his face. “Look what we got.” 

Sasha appears out of nowhere right behind Hamid, and both he and Zolf jump - Hamid definitely doesn’t let out a little bit of a scream, regardless of what Sasha might say.

“Good job, mate,” Sasha says, and plucks the card out of Zolf’s hand as she walks back over to the door. She swipes it against the pad and it glows a bright green, and then the door slides open, revealing a dimly lit corridor. Hamid swallows, tightly - looks like they’re leaving one terrifying room for another.

He walks over to Bertie, resting a hand on his friend’s forearm. “Bertie?” Hamid calls, a few times, and then a bit louder when he hears Bertie muttering to himself. “You can stop keeping watch now, we have to go!”

“Ah, fantastic, Hamid, and I never saw a trace of the monster. Why, it must have been so terrified of myself, a  _ vision _ in golden armor, to even come near, hmm? Why, if I were a monster, just the  _ sight _ of myself would be enough to frighten me into submission! Yes, yes, you are all  _ welcome _ for keeping you safe from the beast lurking in the shadows, the -“

“Bertie!” Hamid cuts in, and Bertie actually stops talking for once. “We can talk about this later, alright? We really need to keep moving.”

“Right you are. Hamid,  _ right you are _ ,” Bertie says, and strides away toward the door as Hamid lets out a little sigh. 

—

It’s dark, sitting here in the rubble underneath Paris. It’s dark, and Hamid can’t see anything, and his head is so  _ loud _ and so  _ empty _ at the same time, he doesn’t… 

Someone is calling his name, but it sounds like it’s coming from so far away. It’s familiar, but he can’t quite place it in his head, now. 

“Hamid,” he hears, and blinks, hands resting lightly in his lap. He almost feels like he’s still

under the rubble, and he can’t feel his arm, and he doesn’t think he can - “Hamid, I need you to say something, alright?” 

It’s Zolf - he recognizes the voice, understands what he’s asking, but he can’t - his throat is so tight, and words seem so far out of reach. 

“Alright. Let’s try this.” A pair of hands touch him and Hamid violently flinches away. “Hey - Hamid. It’s just me. It’s Zolf. I need to try to heal your arm again, okay?”

Healing. Drowning. No. That’s something he can say, and only just manages. “No,” he whispers, backing away, but it doesn’t matter, Zolf isn’t touching him anymore. 

“I’m sorry I startled you,” Zolf says, quiet, and he doesn’t reach out again. “I didn’t mean to.”

“It’s -“ Hamid cuts himself off, because it’s not  _ fine _ , but he isn’t… mad. He just doesn’t want to be healed. Not by - it’s not Zolf’s fault, it’s Poseidon, but Hamid… doesn’t want that. 

“Sorry,” Zolf says again, and Hamid hears him shift away. He still can’t see a thing. 

“Where’s - where’s Sasha?” he asks, when he doesn’t hear her saying anything in the dark. “Is she -“

“She’s searching for a way out,” Zolf says quickly, and Hamid nods. “That’s her, over there. Bit to the right.”

There’s a faint light bobbing back and forth in the distance that Hamid can only just make out, now that Zolf’s pointed it out to him. Good. Sasha’s the most capable out of all of them right now, she’ll be able to handle herself. 

“Are we going to make it out?” Hamid asks, voice hoarse, and Zolf takes a second to answer.

“If Sasha can find a way out, yes,” he says, and Hamid doesn’t want to ask if it’s a lie, because he doesn’t think he’ll like the answer. 

“It’s so  _ dark _ , Zolf,” Hamid says, curling up on himself. His arm lays at his side, completely useless, but Hamid doesn’t pay much mind to it as he wraps his only working arm around his knees, drawing them up into his chest. 

“Here,” Zolf says, eventually, and even though he’s less than five feet away from Hamid, Hamid can only make out the rough shape of his face as he turns to look at him. “Hold out your hand.”

Hamid does, almost absently, and a small, solid weight lands in his palm - Zolf still doesn’t touch him, and Hamid doesn’t know how to feel about that. He’d asked for him not too, and Zolf is respecting that, but he’s - he’s so  _ cold _ . “What -“ he murmurs, rolling it around. It feels like - “is this your ring?”

“Yeah,” Zolf says. “My brother - well, it’s a long story, but he used to be a miner. I. I hated it down there, and he’d give it to me when I started panicking.”

The idea of Zolf being the one to panic is almost laughable to Hamid; he always seems so unshakeable. “Did it help? When he gave you the ring, I mean.”

“Well,” Zolf starts, shifting a bit on the rock. “He’d tell me that the ring was magical, would keep the shadows away. Keep me safe.”

“Is it?” Hamid asks. The ring doesn’t seem magical to him, but, well, he’s not all there.

He hears more than sees Zolf shrug. “Didn’t matter to me, then. It worked. Made me feel safe.”

It helps Hamid, too, regardless of how ordinary or magical the ring is. It’s warm, and a comforting weight in his hand. He tries to put it on a finger but it slips off, too wide for any of his. Hamid gives Zolf the ring back. He isn’t sure if it’s the ring or just  _ Zolf _ , but he does feel a little… better isn’t the word, but a little more  _ himself.  _

“Can -“ Hamid swallows. “Can you just. Come a bit closer?” Zolf doesn’t say anything, and for one horrible moment, Hamid thinks he’s going to ignore him, going to write Hamid off, but then the next second, he hears Zolf moving back over to him, sitting closer, and he wraps an arm around Hamid’s shoulders. 

“Is - is this okay?” Zolf asks, voice a bit tight, and Hamid nods. He can’t stop himself from falling into him a bit, closing his eyes. He can’t see anything, anyway. 

And then they hear the monster scream for the first time, and Hamid’s blood runs cold. 

—

Hamid doesn’t know what to say, but it feels like his heart is being torn in two when Zolf looks at him and tells him he’s leaving. They’ve - they’ve only known each other for a few weeks, a month at most, but Hamid already feels closer to him and Sasha than any of the friends he’s had his entire life. But still he shouldn’t - he shouldn’t feel this lost, right? If Zolf isn’t happy here, isn’t happy with him -  _ with the company _ , Hamid corrects, because it’s - it’s not about him, regardless how much he wants… 

“If you - if you really need to go, then I wish you all the best, but Zolf, I really think you should stay?” Hamid tries, and, god, words are supposed to be the thing he’s  _ good _ at, and yet they all seem to have deserted him now. 

Zolf shakes his head - his face is set, and he stands to leave before Hamid can say anything else. 

“It’s for the best,” he says, short but not cruel, and Hamid’s face falls.

Sasha doesn’t say anything, standing off to the side with an unreadable look on her face, but her entire posture is closed off, Hamid realizes, and she’s looking at Zolf as though she doesn’t know what to say to him.

“Here,” Zolf says, twisting the ring off of his finger and handing it to Hamid. Hamid backs away before Zolf can drop it in his palm. “It - it doesn’t mean what I thought it did. Not anymore.”

“Zolf, I - this was your brother’s ring, he - I can't take this?” Hamid stutters, trying to avoid his hand, because - it’s - this isn’t how it’s supposed to go, Zolf isn’t supposed to - supposed to  _ leave him with a memento _ , but Zolf just reaches out and takes Hamid’s wrist in his hand, and the touch is gentle even with his callouses. He drops the ring in Hamid’s palm and closes his fingers over it. 

“Please,” Zolf says. “I - I don’t want to get rid of it, but everytime I look at it, I think about the airship, and about Feryn, and what Captain Earhart told me, and it just -“ he sighs. “Take it. Please.”

Hamid does. What else is he supposed to do, chuck it? 

“I’ll keep it safe for you,” he promises, and the little crawl of desperation up his back only becomes more prominent with each tick of the clock. “Zolf. I’ll keep it safe, and you have to come get it again.”

The smile Zolf gives him is soft and full of an emotion that Hamid can’t decipher. He doesn’t say anything for a moment, and then he nods once, decisively, and turns away. 

“Take care of yourselves, okay?” His voice is thick as he says his final goodbye, and Hamid is trying so  _ hard  _ to be respectful, to honor his decision, but there’s already a hole next to him where he expected Zolf to always be, and he can’t stop himself from lunging forward and wrapping his arms around Zolf’s waist from behind. He presses his forehead into Zolf’s back and feels Zolf hesitantly pat his arm. 

“Please come back,” he whispers, a wish more than a request, and he can’t fault Zolf for not responding as Hamid unlocks his arms and Zolf walks out the door without saying anything more. Hamid stands there, bereft, and all he wants to do is collapse into a bed and cry, but there’s nothing to be done for it, and - and they have a job to do, regardless of whatever… personal feelings he has on the subject. He - he takes a breath, and locks his heartbreak away, and turns toward Sasha with a brittle smile on his face. 

Sasha doesn’t look like she buys it for a second, but she doesn’t call him on it. Her eyes are suspiciously bright too, and her gaze keeps flicking to the door. 

“Let’s go, Hamid,” she says, uncharacteristically soft, and Hamid lets her lead the way out of the bar. He’s still holding onto the ring, strangely warm from where it had been around Zolf’s finger, and Hamid clutches onto it tighter, wishing he would wake up and this would all be just a bad dream. 

No such thing happens, and Zolf doesn’t come back. Hamid buys a chain at a market in Prague, terrified that the ring will slip off of his thumb and be lost forever. He - he refuses to believe that he won’t see Zolf again someday, and until then, he’s going to keep it safe. It’s what Zolf asked him to do, anyway, and Hamid made a promise.

He wraps the chain around his neck, and the ring is cool against his chest. It’s a reminder, nothing more, but Hamid will fight tooth and nail to keep anything from happening to it. 

And then there’s the opera. He transforms into… into  _ something,  _ something small and scaley and  _ right _ and the chain still doesn’t break. His mind is broken, confused, and he can’t remember his own name, and as he curls up under a broken pillar, rain pouring around him, clawed hands clutch at the unbreakable metal of the ring and he keens at the sky. 

Cairo happens, and then Damascus, and Hamid still keeps the ring safe, feels the light weight of the chain around his neck and the cool stone against his chest, and late at night when he’s alone and trapped in a vortex of his own thoughts, he pulls the ring out, presses it to his lips, and thinks about how Zolf told him it was meant to keep the shadows away. He isn’t sure if it works, but it does make him feel less alone.

Rome is… the worst. Everything hurts all the time, and magic doesn’t work, and Hamid still keeps the ring safe through everything, begging and praying to gods he doesn’t believe in to keep his friends safe.

And then he and Azu make it back with the hostages, and Sasha and Grizzop are gone, maybe forever, and Hamid still has the ring. There are bigger problems, now, and his brother is here and he has to keep Ishaak safe, and it’s been eighteen months, and he doesn’t - he doesn’t know what to  _ do,  _ half of their party is gone, and he’s… he’s not alone, he knows that, but so many people have left, have died, that his heart is nothing but a cavernous echo of the people who used to be there. Zolf, Bertie, Aziza, Grizzop, Sasha… he pulls the ring out of his shirt and presses a kiss to the cold metal, letting the tears fall. It doesn’t bring the same comfort it used to; maybe it’s because the shadows are too big, too much to handle, this time.

But still, through it all, Hamid keeps the ring safe. 

He made a promise.

—

Zolf showing up again is… a lot for Hamid to take in. It’s not  _ bad,  _ it never could be, seeing him again, but it’s still a shock. It’s been so long, and so much has happened, Hamid had resigned himself to never seeing Zolf again, especially after he’d never had a response to that last letter.

Everything has been so  _ much _ so fast, and now they’re in a cage for at least a week, even though Zolf says he knows it’s Hamid, it’s  _ protocol _ , and Hamid doesn’t like it but he understands, at least. He wishes Zolf would tell them  _ something _ . Curie had laid a lot on them back at Hamid’s family estate, but there was still so much missing - how everything started, if and how the simulacrum fits into it, how Zolf got involved again… but his lips are tightly shut on any topics that could be used against them. Hamid knows he’s being strategic, being  _ smart _ , but it still rattles him. 

Zolf sees the ring on the first day, when they strip so that Wilde can check them for signs of the infection. It’s terrible, and awkward, and Hamid  _ hates _ how vulnerable he feels, can see how much Azu detests it, especially in front of someone who’s a stranger to her, and Wilde. Zolf looks incredibly uncomfortable too, standing off to the side and averting his eyes immediately after the check. Wilde doesn’t say anything, ever, and Hamid doesn’t know what he’d do if Wilde made a quip about the situation. Probably clock him, once they get out. But he doesn’t, and the thirty seconds of vulnerability and awkwardness pass and Hamid and Azu spend the next five minutes silently sitting in the corner of the cell and not speaking to Zolf or each other. 

But - Zolf did see the chain, and the ring, and he asks about it. Hamid can’t fault him for that, and he did want to give it back, he just… forgot, really, what with everything going on.

“Is - is that my ring?” Zolf asks, late into the afternoon, and Hamid nods, stepping closer to the singular gap in the cell. “All this time, you kept it?” He sounds… surprised isn’t the word. Astonished, maybe. In awe, maybe, and in the dim lamplight of the room, Hamid can’t make out the look in his eyes. 

Hamid pulls the chain around his neck off, holding it out in shaking hands. “I kept it safe for you,” he says, and he’s cried so much in the past few days that he really thought it was all out, but it seems like he was wrong. They’re quiet tears, this time - not the heaving sobs of losing Sasha and Grizzop, nor the tears of frustration and confusion when he realized he wouldn’t be seeing his family even though it’s been more than  _ eighteen months  _ since they last saw him. They’re just… tears of utter exhaustion, and Zolf doesn’t comment. 

“You did?” Zolf asks, and Hamid slips the ring off of the chain, handing it through the bars to Zolf. He presses it into Zolf’s hand, meaning to be brief, but Zolf’s hand closes around his fingers, keeping him there. 

His hand is warm. He holds on maybe a moment too long, thumb brushing comfortingly across Hamid’s knuckles, and then his touch is gone. “I didn’t - thank you, Hamid,” he says, sincere, and Hamid shrugs, wrapping his arms around himself.

“I made a promise,” he says, quiet, too soft for this situation, and that same look is back in Zolf’s eyes, one Hamid refuses to analyze. His - he did a favor for a friend, that’s all. He can’t deal with it being anything more than that, right now. Zolf, thankfully, seems to pick up on it - or on  _ something _ , because he doesn’t press, beyond murmuring another soft thank you. 

They stand there in silence, for a moment. Azu still isn’t speaking, sitting over in the darker corner of the cell. Hamid knows the guilt is hitting her hard, and he feels helpless to pull her out of it. There’s not much they can do in the cage, anyway, except comfort each other. 

“Did it help?” Zolf asks, pulling him from his thoughts, and Hamid blinks. “The ring, I mean,” he amends, sitting down and leaning back against the bars to the cell. Hamid joins him, and there might be bars between their backs, but he can still feel the warmth. 

“Yes,” he says, simply. There’s a lot they still need to say to each other, but for now… this’ll do. “It did.”

**Author's Note:**

> kudos and comments are super appreciated!! or hmu on tumblr @ ohallows 
> 
> —
> 
> me, initially: hey what if the +1 is a proposal   
> me, after writing: wait that makes no sense they just found each other again they gotta build it up 
> 
> also also bryn mentioned that hamid not accepting healing from zolf was intentional and i have so many THOUGHTS about that esp considering how we’ve seen the dissonance in what gods want vs what the cults think their gods want ANYWAY that’s a topic for another fic


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